[K12OSN] New K12LTSP installation

[James P. Kinney III]

On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 10:27 -0600, jeff williams wrote:
> Greetings...
> 
> I've been monitoring the e-mail list for about 4 months and have a couple of 
> questions.
> 
> 1.  Is the latest / greatest K12LTSP 6.0.0 as seems to be indicated on the 
> download page of the K12LTSP Wiki?

Use the -EL version. It is solid and supportable for several more years
to come. K12LTSP v.6 is already past end-of-life
> 
> 2.  Is there really an advantage in speed going with 64 bit rather than 32 bit 
> for the server?  I ask because I can test 32 bit locally, and don't have 64 
> bit available.  BTW, the lab will be 20 seats in a K-8 environment.  I'm 
> planning on running a lightweight window manager rather than KDE or Gnome.

Speed is not a benefit of 64 bit. The benefit is RAM access. If you want
to use greater than 4 GB RAM in the most efficient manner, you need 64
bit. 20 Clients will work OK with a 32 bit system running 4GB RAM.
> 
> 3.  The lab will need to also speak to a Windows server for legacy student 
> files, thus I am looking at Samba and smbmount.  Any problems in sharing data 
> this way?
None at all. Well, other than the usual windoze problems :-)
> 
> 4.  Is there a good writeup on load sharing between two K12LTSP servers if we 
> decide to go a bit fancy?
Too much work to load balance with only 2 servers. Split the client list
with the network wiring and divide and conquer!

> 
> 5.  I'm going to be purchasing new small form factor diskless workstations for 
> the lab.  Are there any noted problems with either the Devon IT 6020 series 
> or the eBox-2300 and K12LTSP 6.0.0?  (It looks like the Diskless Workstations 
> LTSP Term 1000 is a rebranded eBox-2300.  Is this correct?)
The Devon 6020 have a good reputation with the LTSP stuff. There were a
few tweaks for USB (?) a while back (or was it a network driver?).
Search the archives for this list and it will turn up.
> 
> 6.  Are there any other words of wisdom you would like to supply?

The more RAM you can throw at the server(s) the better.

> 
> BTW, I have been playing with LTSP/K12LTSP off and on for about 5 years, but 
> have not done a full, not-recovered-from-the-dumpster installation before.  
> My test server is a PIII/450 which was given to me.
> 
> I am very, very impressed with the ease of making K12LTSP work, and am looking 
> forward to getting this lab in to production.
> 
> Many thanks.
> -- 
> Jeff Williams - cfiaime at cfiaime.com
> 
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> 
-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC                           
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7


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